


Casablanca Ghost Story

by sakasamahoshizora



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26281897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakasamahoshizora/pseuds/sakasamahoshizora
Summary: What starts out as making Valentine's chocolates with her classmates leads to a ghostly encounter that mirrors Rei's own life and her relationships therein just a little bit and give her some perspective...Takes place a year prior to the events in Moon Story Remix but can be read on its own.
Kudos: 2





	Casablanca Ghost Story

Rei hadn’t even noticed until her first year in junior high. 

One of the new teachers quietly asked her to stay after class. Rei did well in her classes and got along fine with her classmates. As far as she knew her father was still paying her tuition. There didn’t seem to be any reason why a teacher would see the need to talk to her in private.

“Hino-san...” the teacher sat down across from her and paused, looking conflicted. Rei waited patiently. At length the teacher finally appeared to make up her mind and asked, “Hino-san, are you being bullied?”

“Ex...cuse me?” Rei was so surprised she didn’t know how to react. At length she recovered from the initial shock and responded with her own question, “Why do you ask that?”

The teacher looked just as confused as her. “I just… I noticed how you’re the only one the other girls never call by your given name.”

“I can’t say I noticed,” Rei admitted honestly.

The next day in class though, it was on her mind, and sure enough…

“Anri, what did you get for number 5 on the take-home quiz?”

“Hey, Sakura, did you see the new BTS dance video?”

“Has anyone seen Miki? I thought she was on whiteboard duty today.”

“Hino-san?”

Rei was broken out of her absentminded people-watching by the sound of her own name and she looked up with a, “Hm?”

“It’s almost Valentine’s Day and a bunch of us were going to go to Fuu-chan’s to make chocolates this weekend. Did you want to come? If you’re not busy at the shrine, that is.”

“No, that sounds nice.”

Fuuko peeked around the other girl with a cheeky grin. “See, Nami? I told you Hino-san would want to come too.”

Nami looked sheepish. “My bad. Although now you’ve got me curious. Anyone special in mind?”

Rei shook her head with a smile. “No, but my grandfather has a sweet tooth. If I don’t give him something he melodramatically buys too much discounted chocolate after the fact.”

Fuuko laughed. “I’ve met your grandpa, I believe it. I’ll add you and Nami to the group Line later, okay?”

“Sure, thanks.”

“Oop, there’s Atsuko. I’m going to invite her too.” Fuuko skipped across the room.

Nami took her seat next to Rei and giggled. “I don’t think Fuu-chan’s mom knows what she’s getting into.”

“How many people is she inviting?”

“Half the class, I swear.”

They shared a laugh, then Rei absently asked, “Nami… why does everyone call me ‘Hino-san’ even though all the other girls are called by their given name?”

The look on Nami’s face told Rei that she’d never taken notice of it either. “I don’t know… I guess you’re just ‘Hino-san’. Does it bother you?”

“No, but the teacher noticed and thought you guys were ostracizing me or something.”

“Pfft, whaaat?” Nami waved a hand dismissively, “That’s ridiculous. It’s just like... a nickname. I guess because you’re so… what’s the word? Grown up? You’re the adult in class putting up with all us children.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“No, I think I’m on to something here. You’re not exactly the class mom, more like the class ‘cool aunt’ we all want to be like when we grow up.”

“Oh, stop!”

The day of the chocolate making, Rei met up with her classmates at the station and together they made first a trip to the local supermarket for ingredients (and snacks) and then Fuuko led the way into the residential area, past a tree-filled and well-maintained park, to a modern, three-storey home with a wrought-iron gate.

“Oh wow, the renovations look great!” Nami said appreciatively.

“Right? If you go around back the old Japanese storage shed and the original stone wall are still there so it’s a bit incongruous, but the house is finished at least.” Fuuko opened the gate and let everyone into the yard. “The old house was seriously falling apart, so I’m glad my parents finally convinced Grandfather to let them rebuild. He won’t budge on the shed though.”

Rei moved to follow everyone in but stopped short just as she crossed through the gate into the yard.

The other girls noticed at the door and looked at her curiously. “Hino-san?”

Rei shook off the unwelcome feeling and caught up with everyone.

Inside the home was an open floorplan, with the foyer opening directly to a combination living/dining room separated from the kitchen by only the counter, which had several bar stools lined up before it. To the right was a door opening into what appeared to be a study, the stairs to the upper floors, and an alcove that housed the laundry machines and the entrance to the bathroom. Everything was in muted whites and blue-greys to heighten the modern feel. Fuuko’s ‘incongruous’ comment was made all the more true when one noticed the rear wall; it was dominated almost entirely by large floor-to-ceiling windows that gave an unbroken view into the traditional Japanese style gardens and the white-walled and tile-roofed traditional ‘kura’ storage shed.

The longer Rei looked at the shed, the more it became apparent the niggling feeling of being unwelcome was coming from there. A shadow of malcontent hung over it and crept towards the house.

“Is there anything kept in that shed?” she asked.

Fuuko looked up from putting out guest slippers and shot a glance out at the backyard. She shrugged. “I think some old family stuff my grandfather won’t let go of. I don’t actually remember anyone going inside. Why?”

Rei returned her shrug. “Just curious.”

She recognized the look some of her classmates were giving her and resolved to keep any other strange feelings to herself. She’d already made things weird.

The girls took over the kitchen and the dining table, setting out portable gas burners, pots and bowls and an electric kettle to aid in melting chocolate. Together they shared snacks and compared different moulds and fillings. Another of Rei’s classmates, Atsuko, was a member of the cooking club, so she occupied the kitchen and began showing some girls how to make shortbread cookies.

After some time, Fuuko’s mother and an elderly gentleman Rei assumed was her grandfather emerged from the stairs.

“Sounds like you’re all having fun,” Fuuko’s mother greeted them.

Everyone chimed in with variations on saying hello and agreeing that they were enjoying themselves.

“Just remember to clean up when you’re done,” Fuuko’s mother reminded them. “I’m taking Grandfather to his doctor’s appointment but we’ll get take-out for dinner, so make yourselves at home. I’m excited to see what you all make,” she winked, “and to hear all about who you’re making them for.”

In contrast to the cheerful mood of all the girls, Fuuko’s grandfather harumphed at this. He noticed Rei glance at him curiously and turned resolutely for the door. The aura around the shed prodded for her attention again and she absently wondered if it was just reflecting the grandfather’s reluctance to let go of the old home.

Fuuko’s mother and grandfather left and the girls naturally fell on the topic of who everyone was making the chocolates for. Some were for boyfriends or crushes, one other girl from a different class was making her chocolates for family members like Rei, and one girl blushed bright red and refused to tell. The next in line was Rei, who was given a question she hadn’t anticipated.

“Hino-san, does your shrine sell any love charms?”

Rei nodded, “We have some _omamori_ charms for love. There is also an offering box with love fortunes that come with little paper dolls that act as good luck charms.”

“Have you ever been to the shrine when she’s working?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“She looks so beautiful.”

Rei shook her head and went back to stirring her chocolate mixture. Once again she was treated slightly differently from her peers. Now that she’d noticed it, it stood out and gave her a conflicted twinge of an emotion she couldn’t quite place internally.

Nami looked up from the cookie group and agreed that Rei looked beautiful in her miko clothes, adding, “It’s a shame she’s only giving her chocolate to her grandfather.”

“Whaaat?”

“There’s no one you like? At all?”

Before she even realized it, Rei admitted, “There was someone, kind of, once, but that’s in the past.”

She hadn’t thought of _him_ in months. Did she want to be involved in everyone’s girl talk so bad that she’d bring that painful memory up?

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Fuuko leaned in expectantly.

“You’re going to get your hair in the chocolate,” Rei deflected.

“Ack!”

When she raised her voice, there was a pitter-patter on the stairs and a little pomeranian came bounding into the room. Fuuko moved to intercept, cooing,

“Look who decided to join us! I told Mother to keep you upstairs so we wouldn’t have dog hair in all the chocolates but I guess she forgot to close the door.” She kissed the dog’s head multiple times. “Wanna say hi to my friends? Everyone, this is Momo.”

Momo was subsequently given lots of pets and compliments before Fuuko put him out in the backyard.

Not long after, the chocolate making wound down until everything was either in the refrigerator to set or out of the oven on racks to cool. The whole house smelled sweet and had grown warm enough that Fuuko turned down the heater in the living room space..

“Just sit wherever guys. Mother should be back with food soon.”

By now the sun had dipped behind the surrounding buildings and the shadows were growing longer. Rei paused on her way to join the other girls in the living room and asked, “Should we let your dog back in?”

“Oh, maybe. Can you do it? He’ll come to anyone who calls his name.”

“Sure.”

Rei changed directions and let herself out into the backyard, switching her slippers for the pair of sandals set out by the door. She closed the door to keep the heat in and wrapped her arms around herself. As it had gotten darker the temperature had dropped significantly.

“Momo? Here, Momo…” Rei stepped out into the yard, looking around for the little dog.

The yard wasn’t very big, so it was only a few steps before she found herself directly in front of the storage shed. There was definitely something about it…

Rei reached out to touch the door. The moment her fingers touched the old wood, her mind was filled with flashes of images, only half of which were her own.

Unbidden gifts, a bouquet of Casablanca lilies, an antique music box, awkward matchmaking meetings, broken hearts and unrealized dreams, familial disappointment and farewells in the rain--

“You’ll catch cold out here, come inside.”

Rei snapped back to reality and pulled her fingertips quickly away from the door as if it had burned her. She felt the dark aura recede away, slithering across the ground to settle around Fuuko’s grandfather.

“Oh,” her voice sounded oddly more surprised than she was, or was it the opposite? “I was just looking for Momo…”

At the sound of his name the pomeranian came running to bounce around her feet and turn in excited circles. Now that the spirit in the shed wasn’t messing with her he came immediately. She bent down to gather him up into her arms.

Fuuko’s grandfather looked closely at her. “You’re the friend Fuuko says is a shrine maiden.”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“You’re the only one she calls by their family name.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Rei said dryly.

The grandfather reached past her to the door of the storage shed. He waited for Rei to step out of the way, then opened it with a heavy groan of the old hinges. There was a musty waft of stale air and the rustling of the spirit attached to the grandfather before it settled back into just being an old storage shed. It was too dark to see much other than vague shapes of assorted ‘stuff’ with the exception of an old antique music box sitting oddly in the middle of the floor.

At his request, Rei set Momo back down on the ground and took the grandfather’s hand to steady him as he took the creaky wooden step up into the shed. He stooped to retrieve the music box, then shuffled back and handed it to Rei before again using her as assistance in exiting the shed. She watched him close the door curiously, feeling both the physical and metaphysical weight of the box.

“I hate to impose upon you,” he said seriously, “but I believe this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.”

“What would you like me to do?”

“I would appreciate it if your shrine could purify this music box for me.” He placed a hand on it, a melancholy look on his face as he did so, “I will be sure to visit and make an offering at a later date.”

Rei studied his face for a moment, then bowed her head and formally accepted the music box and his request. “You can count on me, sir.”

Back inside, dinner was assorted fancy take-out that was quickly dispatched by the hungry girls over more discussion of who was giving chocolate to who. When it came time to leave, Fuuko noticed the music box that had joined Rei’s things and asked,

“Hino-san, where did that come from?”

“Your grandfather entrusted it to me. He wishes for it to be purified at our shrine.” Rei felt the mood shift again. Did it always have to be this awkward?

“O-Oh…” Fuuko looked to her mother, “Did Grandfather say anything to you?”

“No,” her mother in turn looked to the grandfather.

“I had been meaning to do so for a long time now,” the grandfather stuffily defended himself. “Hino-san graciously accepted.”

“Still, there’s a time and a place… Hino-san, let me get you a bag for that at least…” Fuuko’s mother wandered off towards the kitchen.

“It’s no trouble at all,” Rei assured Fuuko.

“Purify though…” Nami said with raised eyebrows. “You can actually do that?”

“Yes, it is a part of my duties.”

“Kinda weird…”

“In this day and age...?”

“Sounds creepy…”

Rei had heard all these comments before but they hit closer to home coming from her classmates. She resigned herself to further distance being put between her and them now that they’d heard it for themselves, as was the usual way of things. She accepted the paper bag Fuuko’s mother offered to carry the music box in and mostly kept to herself on the walk to the train station and the rest of the way home.

The walk up the stairs took more of a toll than usual. Rei paused halfway to look up at the stars. Her breath puffed out in white clouds that dissipated into the chilly February breeze. The moon was three-quarters full and very bright, illuminating the stairs and the cloudless night to the extent that you’d almost assume it was full.

The spirit attached to the music box stirred, and Rei resumed her assent. She crossed the shrine grounds at the top and wound around to the living quarters.

“Grandpa, I’m home,” she called. “I brought you chocolate, and my classmate’s family has a re...quest…” she trailed off as she entered the room and found her grandfather had a guest. “Kaidou…”

“Rei-san,” he greeted her with a polite smile, “it’s good to see you.”

“Yes,” she said stiffly, “you, too.” She set the chocolates down in front of her grandfather. (He immediately tore into them.) “What brings you here?”

“I started working as an assistant at your father’s office this month and he sent me to deliver the news. Your father would have come as well, but…”

“He was busy,” she finished for him. The usual excuse. Interesting to see the son of her father’s closest business partner was still at his beck and call.

As if in response to her discontent, she sensed the music box spirit stir again. It reached for her and she sighed. The day had started off so well but was getting increasingly troublesome. She both recognized that it was the effect of the spirit and that it was the type to feed off of and amplify already existing problems.

Fuuko had mentioned her grandfather wouldn’t let them tear down the storage shed. The spirit must have some kind of lingering attachment to this world, some unfinished business or an unrealized dream…

“Rei? Rei??”

Rei shook her head as her grandfather’s voice broke through her mental fog. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I asked if you need dinner.”

“Oh, no, I ate at my classmate’s place.”

“I assumed so. You said something about a request?”

“Oh, yes. Her family entrusted me with an antique they would like purified. There’s some sort of spirit attached to it.”

“Oh?” Her grandfather took the bag with the music box from her and peered at it. “So it would seem. Very well, we can perform a ritual tomorrow. I’ll set this aside for now. Sit, sit. Have some tea and catch up with young Kaidou.”

Rei looked past him to Kaidou and tried unsuccessfully to keep how much she didn’t want to off her face. All the same, she allowed her grandfather to take the music box from her, leaving her with no choice but to set aside her other things and her coat and take a seat on one of the unoccupied cushions. The silence in the room post her grandfather’s exit was heavy on both her and Kaidou’s shoulders. She reached for the kettle, inspected the inside to confirm how much was left, and politely refilled the guest’s cup before pouring her own.

“Thank you,” Kaidou said.

“You’re welcome,” Rei said.

They drank in silence for an uncomfortably long moment. Rei snuck a glance at him in the meantime. He wore his hair differently from the last time they’d met. It was more neat, losing even more of the messy unkept look he’d had when he’d been closer to her age. If he was working at her father’s office already, she assumed he was working his way through university. For all she knew her father had given him a scholarship or something of the sort. His suit appeared tailored. She assumed the glasses were a choice. Surely he could afford contacts.

“Rei-san,” he set down his cup and looked directly at her. “You should know I’m getting married next year. I’d like you to be there.”

Mixed feelings broke out in a prickly cold sweat all down her back. “Oh. Yes, of course.”

Kaidou smiled in relief. He reached over and put his hand over hers in a gesture of affection that was both welcome and unwelcome at the same time. “Thank you. I’ll send the invitation when the date is set.”

Rei nodded and sipped her tea, hoping her grandfather would come back already so she could excuse herself without being rude.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kaidou finally left and Rei and her grandfather saw him out. Feeling exhausted, Rei took a long, hot bath and crawled into bed where she fell asleep immediately.

Rei awoke to darkness and silence. For a moment she struggled to gauge her surroundings. Finally she turned on her side and looked at the clock, where the glowing numbers read 2:56. She returned to lying on her back, turned the other way, then back again the clock and sighed. Maybe a warm drink would help her go back to sleep.

She shivered as the cold air outside her duvet hit her and reached for the stole she kept next to the bed. Wrapping around herself, she moved quietly through the midnight shadows to the kitchen. Her skin tingled as she went, and not entirely from the cold.

One of the rooms she passed was one of the small tatami rooms used or greeting guests to the shrines, usually people wishing to have weddings there or planning for festivals and new years’ events. Her mind recalled a memory so vivid that it seemed to illuminate the room as bright as the day it took place on…

“Don’t give me that look. It’s decided.” Her father got to his feet with finality and left before she could even think to protest.

Her grandfather gave her a sympathetic look and followed.

Rei was trembling, ready to burst in rage or tears or both until Kaidou reached over from where he was sat next to her to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t feel bad, I was blindsided by the decision too.”

“Yet I do not see you objecting,” Rei said curtly.

“Your father has been very good to me. He’s even promised me a job when I graduate…” Kaidou said guiltily. “But you’re right, this is going a bit too far… It’s not exactly the Edo period anymore and you’re… how old?”

“Thirteen.”

Kaidou pushed back his thick blond bangs and ignored the glasses that slipped down his nose with a wry twist of his mouth. It would have been charming if she wasn’t so angry. “So four years younger than me. You’re so composed I thought you were older.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re actually considering this absurd idea of an arranged marriage.”

“It’s not like we’re getting married tomorrow. And who knows, your father may change his mind before you’ve become an adult,” he protested. “It’s all politics, isn’t it? We just have to play along to keep the older generation happy.

“Rei...san,” he pulled his hand away, also putting distance back between them by adding the honourific back to her name. “We’ve known each other since we were children, I helped you move to this shrine when your mother passed away…”

“You showed genuine kindness and human empathy once, so both you and I should consign the rest of our lives to each other in the name of nepotism?”

He didn’t have an answer.

Back in the darkened hallway, Rei in the present day shivered and pulled her stole tighter around herself. She continued on to the kitchen, where she turned on the light and set about getting a mug and a tea bag while waiting for the electric kettle to boil.

Only a year later and now Kaidou was getting married. She should have been happy for him. No, that wasn’t right. She was happy for him. They’d fought for so long to convince her father to give up on his ridiculous arranged marriage idea, so much that she and her father had not spoken since. Maybe it was the quick turnaround she found so unsettling. He’d gone awfully quickly from ‘let’s play along’ to ‘I’m marrying someone else’.

Who got married right out of high school anyway?

The kettle clicked and she welcomed the distraction. As the tea bloomed into the hot water she wrapped her hands around the mug to warm them and waited.

Another memory came unbidden, from the previous autumn in this same kitchen.

Kaidou stood in the doorway and held up his excuse for coming that day. “Your father sent me over to share the sweet potato cakes my family bought as a souvenir from our trip to Kawagoe.”

“Grandpa will be happy,” she said.

He looked crestfallen. “I thought you liked them.”

“I do,” she answered mildly, “but he likes them more.”

She made to exit the kitchen past him but he stopped her, leaning close to look into her eyes. “Rei…” pause, “...-san, I don’t mean to be forward but can’t you just, maybe… think about it? Give it a chance…?” He paused and added, “Give me a chance?”

_Give me a chance?_

Rei jolted violently out of her reverie and sloshed some of the hot tea onto her hand. She winced and sucked on the burn to soothe it.

Wait. Something was wrong. It hadn’t been a trip to Kawagoe, it had been somewhere farther… somewhere else… had the gift been sweet potato cakes or had it been Casablanca lilies and an…

...an…

...antique music box.

The shadowy spirit she’d brought back from Fuuko’s storage shed detached from her and Rei left her tea behind to follow it down one hallway, then another, across the walkway connecting the shrine buildings all the way to the main building. Rei stopped briefly at the entrance to bow, then continued on to the little storage room where her grandfather had left the bag containing the music box on a shelf.

Rei removed the music box and gingerly opened it. It began to play a tune she’d never heard before and yet somehow knew the title.

_Rain Tree._

Fittingly, somewhere in the night a chilly rain had begun to fall. The sound filled her ears as Rei took the music box into the worship hall, where a fire was kept burning perpetually in a firepit at the back of the room. It was almost down to the embers so she stoked it and then sat on her knees with the music box between her and it.

The spirit in the box was quiet. Rei bowed, clapped twice, then bowed again before taking a deep breath and sitting very still with her hands pressed together. She recognized that it was watching, waiting, and she contented herself to do the same.

The spirit was not malicious, not really. The feeling she got most from it was lingering regret.

Fuuko’s family name was Maekawa, as she recalled. The music box had clearly been with the family for a long time, since before the grandfather’s generation.

The fire flickered, crackling and popping as it consumed the fresh wood Rei had fed into it. It warmed the room and the light played over the design of the music box. Rei waited. The spirit waited. The night deepened, then waned…

Outside of a traditional Japanese home, a young man in a striped navy and green kimono paired with a brimmed straw hat typical of the early 1910s. He held a bouquet of bright white Casablanca lilies. It was raining heavily, the water cascading off his umbrella in a curtain around him to encapsulate him and the doorway in a private little world Rei felt strongly like she was intruding on.

A young woman came to the door and upon being presented with the flowers looked… ambivalent. She did not invite him in.

The young man faltered. “I thought they were your favorite.”

“They are.”

Ah, no wonder the spirit had latched onto her. There was a lot of Rei and Kaidou in these two.

“You should know…” the young man said at length, “I’m getting married in the spring. It’s not of my choice, my parents arranged it quickly to cover their shame after arrangements between our families were broken off. But… Maekawa-san… I wish you’d give me a chance…”

He was a nice enough boy, but there was just nothing there. No animosity, he’d never been particularly unpleasant to be around, but she didn’t understand why she should resign herself to the faint possibility that maybe, someday, polite tolerance might become affection, let alone love. Even more difficult to understand was the question of what he saw in her. Surely he was only doing what their parents wanted of him, his earnesty puzzled her.

The young man handed Maekawa the flowers and held out a wrapped parcel. “This is also for you. I’ve been apprenticed to a clockmaker. It’s the first music box I made and… and… I want you to have it…” his lip trembled, “as a token of what could have been between us.”

Maekawa reached to take the music box, but faltered. “I don’t think…”

“Please,” he begged. “I will ask of nothing more if you just humour me this one request.”

“All right.”

He took a step back and said sadly, “Farewell.”

“Good-bye.”

Maekawa placed the music box on a dresser in her room. It played a song she recalled telling her suitor she’d liked once. She still liked it, and soon it came that every morning when she awoke and every night before she went to sleep she would leave the music box open. True to his word, the young man did not appear again before her, and as time went on she began to miss their meetings.

Still, too late now…

In the spring she sent a letter congratulating him on his marriage and wishing him well.

A week later, she received word that he’d caught tuberculosis over the winter and passed away before the wedding could be held.

It was then the bad luck had begun. Maekawa never married, but cared for her brother’s children when he and his wife died during the war. Her niece and nephew never had relationships that lasted, nor did their children, nor their children’s children… Fuuko, too, was bound to have her heart broken in the future.

Rei opened her eyes and regarded the music box sadly. She recognized now that it wasn’t one spirit attached to the box, it was two. Maekawa’s spirit was bound by her guilt, and the young man’s had become twisted by his resentment and regret and wondering what could have been until the darkness had grown and interfered with the Maekawa family’s happiness over the years.

Rei put her hands back together and focused on the darker spirit. He wasn’t evil, but he had let such dark emotions overtake him. 

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair at all. He loved her and she might have loved him eventually.

What if she’d given him a chance?

Would he have moved in with her family and worked at her family’s business instead as planned?

Would that have saved him from contracting tuberculosis?

Would he have lived?

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t, but no one was in the wrong. The dark spiral the young man had allowed himself to go down was helping no one, least of all himself. Rei focused her energy and reached out, murmuring the incantation, “Evil spirit, begone!”. The fire flared, bathing her and the music box in bright light that drove the young man’s spirit out and to the other side.

To Maekawa’s spirit, Rei offered a gentle smile and the words, “I understand, it’s hard to connect with people for me, too. But you’re putting too much blame on yourself. It’s all right now… you can be at peace...”

In her mind’s eye she saw Maekawa as she had appeared in the memories, kneeling before her. She leaned forward and folded her hands around Rei’s, pressing her forehead to hers in silent thanks before fading away. When Rei next opened her eyes, the music box was nothing more than a music box, and the fire had once again burned down to a few licks of flames poking here and there above glowing embers. Outside, she could hear Phobos and Deimos cawing and the twittering of songbirds.

The door opened behind her and her grandfather raised his voice in surprise, “Rei, what are you doing in here? The sun’s only just coming up.”

Rei wiped the tears that she didn’t even remember crying from her cheeks. So she’d been in there around three hours. She was so exhausted it was taking her supreme effort to come up with a response.

Her grandfather crossed the floor and pat the top of her head fondly. “You purified the music box?”

She nodded. “It called to me in the night.”

“Good work, my dear. You should go rest now.”

Rei nodded again and got slowly to her feet. She picked up the music box and considered it a moment.

As if reading her mind, her grandfather said, “If the family doesn’t want it back, you’re welcome to keep it.”

“I think I might.”

Time passed, and the long-ago unrealized romance between Fuuko’s ancestor and the young clockmaker faded from Rei’s memory, though the antique music box still sat upon her dresser.

In the August of the next year, at the beginning of the Obon holiday, she was out sweeping the plaza on a sunny Saturday afternoon when Kaidou made his first visit in over a year. He reached the top of the stairs and waved before stopping to wash his hands.

He crossed the plaza to her and held up a paper bag. “You’re father sent me to deliver this for the _ochugen_ mid-summer greeting.”

Rei graciously took the bag and noted it was a honeydew melon in a very expensive-looking box. “Come in and have something cool to drink.”

“I can’t stay long,” he said apologetically, “I have to get back to the office.”

“Are you working through your summer break?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Rei led the way to the sitting area next to the stall selling charms and fortunes. “We can sit here then. I’ll go get some iced tea and let Grandpa know you’re here.”

Before she could do so however, Phobos cawed and alighted on the roof above her head, alerting her to the arrival of another guest.

“Hino-saan~!” Fuuko gasped her way up the last step accompanied by her mother and waved. “Oh good, I hoped you’d be here. Man, that is a lot of stairs I don’t know how you do it…” Fuuko jogged across the plaza ahead of her mother and doubled over with her hands on her knees. “Good thing we talked Grandfather out of coming he could never, I mean, wow…”

“Good afternoon,” Fuuko’s mother greeted, also clearly out of breath.

“Have a seat,” Rei offered. “I was just about to get some tea.”

“Okay, cool…” Fuuko gratefully plunked herself down and fanned herself with her handkerchief. She ignored her mother scolding her to be more polite.

Rei retrieved a pitcher of barley tea from the refrigerator, then got a tray for guests and filled it with glasses, individual serving plates, a cutting board, and a knife for the melon, informed her grandfather they had guests, and returned to where everyone was waiting.

“Forgive me, I haven’t made introductions yet. Fuuko, Maekawa-san, this is Kaidou, who works for my father. Kaidou, this is Fuuko, one of my classmates from school and her mother.” Once greetings were exchanged and tea and slices of melon had been passed around, Rei queried,

“What brings you to the shrine today?”

“Oh, right!” Fuuko turned to her mother, who set a paper bag not unlike the one Kaidou had brought before Rei.

“This is for you,” she said.

“Grandfather would have brought it himself but like I mentioned, those stairs would have been way too much for him,” Fuuko explained.

Rei gave the bag a puzzled look. “What is it?”

Fuuko explained, “So after your visit last year Grandfather finally let us tear down that old storage shed, but first we had to clean it out go through all the stuff in it. It was full of things that had been in the family forever, and deciding what to keep and what to sell or get rid of took some time. Anyway, we found some kimono that belonged to uh… my great aunt…?” She looked to her mother for confirmation.

After some thought, Fuuko’s mother supplied, “Great-great aunt, I think. Maybe great-great-great aunt, your grandfather wasn’t entirely sure.”

“Well anyway, Grandfather wanted you to have one of them as thanks for helping us out.”

Rei set the paper bag on its side and gingerly pulled out the kimono, folding back the fragile paper wrapping to reveal the Taisho-era kimono preserved within. “Thank you,” she said graciously. “I’ll be sure to stop by and thank your grandfather in person sometime.”

“We’d be happy to see you any time,” Fuuko’s mother said with a smile.

“Momo would love to see you too, Hino-san!” Fuuko enthusiastically agreed.

“I’d like to see Momo as well,” Rei laughed.

Fuuko and her mother stayed just long enough to finish their melon and tea, then excused themselves just as the sun began to dip low into the sky. Rei and Kaidou saw them as far as the top of the stairs and said their good-byes.

It didn’t escape Rei’s notice that despite saying he couldn’t stay long, Kaidou was still there. He must have had something to talk about, and come to think of it…

“It just occurred to me that you never sent me an invitation to your wedding.”

He looked confused. “What wedding?”

Rei paused, unaware until that very moment just how much the spirits attached to the music box had affected her. She smiled faintly and shook her head. “Never mind, I must have had you mixed up with someone else.”

Kaidou, after an awkward pause, informed her, “I do… have a girlfriend though. I know I kept asking you to give me a chance, but if…”

Rei turned and put a hand on his arm, going up on her toes to place a soft kiss on his cheek. “No. And I’m sure you’ll make her very happy.”

He visibly relaxed. “I hope so.”

“It’s late, you might as well stay for dinner.”

“Right.” Kaidou paused as a thought occurred to him. “Can I ask a question? That girl was your classmate and it seemed as though you’re friends…” He waited until Rei stopped as well and turned back to him, “so why does she call you ‘Hino-san’?”

“Oh, that,” Rei had long since accepted this fact, “think of it like a nickname. No one calls me--”

“Reeeeiiiii!!”

With impeccable timing Usagi came bounding up the stairs accompanied by Luna, Ami, and Makoto. She sure was getting a lot of guests today.

“Rei look, we made ice cream sandwiches!” Usagi proudly waved around a cooler bag.

Makoto took the bag from her before the contents could be shaken around too much and explained, “We would have come earlier but I lost my old cooler bag somewhere during moving and we got distracted while out buying a new one.”

Rei shook her head. “You might as well all stay for dinner and make Grandpa happy.”

“I don’t want to impose,” Ami began, trailing off as Rei made a dismissive motion.

“It’s no trouble at all.”

As they walked back, Kaidou glanced over at her and said, “You were saying?”

Rei shrugged. Why did people automatically keep her at arm’s length? Why did she instinctively tell Usagi and Ami to call her ‘Rei’ on that day they first came to the shrine? It was a mystery she was content to never solve. “I was about to say except for a few close friends.”

“Who’s this?” Usagi asked, looking between Rei and Kaidou. “We have enough ice cream sandwiches to share, by the way.”

“This is Kaidou, he’s…” Rei relaxed and forewent her usual stoic explanation to instead go with the more honest answer, “a friend.”


End file.
